Sundressed: A Postcard from The Hi Hat in Los Angeles

Sundressed is an emotive punk rock collective from Phoenix, Arizona who recently visited the Los Angeles area, unleashing a dynamic live performance at The Hi Hat in Highland Park in direct support of Tiny Stills. Recently signed to Outerloop Records, Sundressed is releasing a Split EP with labelmates Nominee – featuring their lead off single and video Postcard.

Highwire Daze Online caught up with Sundressed’s front man Trevor Hedges to find out more about the three songs on the brand new Split EP with Nominee, their compelling live shows, touring with Tiny Stills, donuts, and whole lot more! Read on..

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Sundressed, and how long the band has been together. My name is Trevor and I’m the singer, songwriter sometimes guitar player. We’ve been a thing for about 6 years.

Where are you based and what’s your local scene like there? We’re mostly based out of Phoenix, AZ and it’s had its ups and downs but it’s pretty awesome right now. Like, our hometown shows are crazy. It’s a lot of fun.

Have you ever played Warped Tour in Phoenix? We haven’t but we are this year.

What do you think that experience is going to be like to play in the final year? We’re real excited. We were hoping we might get a few more than just the one show. We all grew up going to it so it’s gonna be really cool. It’s gonna be really hot, but a lot of fun.

How’s this tour with Tiny Still’s been going so far and what have been some of the highlights? This is the first night, [laughs]. I’m a big fan of Kailynn and her songwriting, so we’re excited to play some shows together.

How did the split with Nominee come about and your singing to Outerloop? So, we did a tour with Nominee in March a year ago, last year. We had met when we toured, they’re from Austin. We stayed in contact and they sent me their EP that came out last year and it just blew me away. They’re the best pop punk band that’s out right now in my opinion. His lyrics are so real, they’re just an incredible band so I knew we had to tour with them. We did that tour and we just become best friends. Then we ended up doing another tour together and in that time we actually both ended up meeting Mike at Outerloop and he jumped in on management for both of us, we’re kind of at the same level. We both had a few songs and we’re really great friends, so we did another tour together – we decided to do the split. Just keep the friendship going, I guess.

And you’re aware you’ll probably have to do another tour now that the Split is coming out… [laughs]. Hopefully, yeah. If we could exclusively tour with them, we would. They’re great friends and an even better band.

Let’s talk about the three songs from the split and what inspired the lyrics for you. First off is Postcard… A little background, I have been sober and in recovery for 9 years. I was addicted to hard drugs and alcohol – so I’ve been sober a long time and what that song is about is what it’s been like for me seeing friends go through it and try and help them having been there before and knowing how difficult it is to take someone’s advice. So it’s like, me having to just watch them go through their shit, knowing what’s going to happen but I can only help so much.

And then what about the other two tracks from the split…?Show Up and So Poetic are kind of in the theme of dealing with things like mental health and social anxiety, and just feeling out of place, and feeling like you don’t want to show up for anything. And you kind of just fighting through that. It’s just a big part of Sundressed. To advocate for those suffering through mental health and try to encourage them. That’s actually what both songs are kind of about.

How do you think this new music on the split compares to your previous releases? We definitely experimented a lot more. Probably because we weren’t really recording with a purpose when we were recording these songs. It was just in between tours. It was cool that it all kind of worked out, but there was a lot of experimenting and seeing where else we can go since we weren’t recording a record. We were happy with how well they came out.

How close are you to doing another EP or a full length for Outerloop? I am pretty close to being done with the next record. We want to make records now. I’m not completely opposed to an EP, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be recording a more substantial release this summer in between tours and hopefully have it out either at the end of this year or the beginning of next. We’re writing a lot right now.

What can one expect from a live Sundressed show? We definitely bring a lot of energy. It’s a little bit more rock and roll than our recordings would suggest for sure. In other cities it’s still growing, but in our hometown they are wild. Kids jump around, crowd surfing and all that. But definitely super high energy – hopefully uplifting, carrying a good message but you know, being serious but also having fun.

Both your band and Tiny Souls have opened for Anthony of Bayside. What was that experience like? We were on that Phoenix show and he ended up canceling, so we didn’t get to play. He lost his voice, and that was the last day of their tour. I know him and Kailynn are really close but we never actually got to play with him. [laughs]

If Sundressed could open up for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why? Oh man – my favorite band is Saves The Day. I would love to tour with that band. That’s probably my #1. Saves The Day or Say Anything, one of those two bands.

You could have said Bayside… I would love that too.

If the music of Sundressed was a donut, what kind would it be and why? I’ve actually thought about this because I love Donut Friend… (Editor’s Note: Donut Friend is a gourmet donut shop right down the street from The Hi Hat)

Never been there, everyone keeps telling me it’s really good. All the donuts are named after band names, which is hilarious. So we were actually trying to come up with what ours would be if we had a donut at Donut Friend. They always make puns off their names. Like, there’s the Smoore-sy, so we decided on Cinnamon Bun Dressed. [laughs]

What’s up next for Sundressed after the short tour? We’re continuing on this tour for about a month. Tiny Stills drops off and then we meet up with a band called Northbound and we’re doing the east coast with them. Then we’re doing Phoenix Warped Tour. We’re announcing a west coast tour tomorrow with Stickup Kid. So we’ll be out on the west coast in August and hopefully when we’re home in July, making a record. We’re busy – hustling always.

Any final words of wisdom? Just be honest, and thank you for caring about our music.